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Category: War Zone

A skeptical reader asks why we profiled Dr. Ramazan Bashardost, the third-place finisher in Afghanistan’s contested 2009 presidential election. The reason is simple: he and a handful of other influential political figures in this country are the true future of Afghanistan. And how well they perform will determine when our troops leave – or if they can at all.
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Suicides are up in the Army, and Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, is convinced that repeated deployments are part of the reason for the problem – even though experts studying the matter are still searching for answers. “There does not appear to be any scientific correlation between the number of deployments and those that are at risk,” he said, “but I’m just hard-pressed to believe that’s not the case.”
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Kabul is a boomtown much like Houston in the 1970s, but beyond the exploding population is a story of people giving up on towns and villages far from Afghanistan’s capital city. Joblessness in those areas has helped fuel instability and the increasing strength of the Taliban. And as people flee their homes, families and friends for the chance to earn a living here, Kabul’s myriad woes multiply, leaving people like Alam Khan Kharoti looking to America’s economic might for a miracle. ‘If America tries,” he said in a recent interview, “it can do everything because it is a superpower,’
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The Pentagon recently revealed that it would send 2,600 soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Combat Aviation Brigade to Afghanistan next summer. One of them, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Lance McElhiney, the Army’s senior AH-64D Apache Longbow pilot, is going with them. It will be his fourth tour of the war zone since the invasion of Iraq, and the sixth of a career that began as a gunship pilot over the jungles of Vietnam.
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‘I didn’t know Brad, but I wanted to say how sorry I am for your loss, I hope we can all come together in peace and not have wars about beliefs. One day may we live our lives like in the John Lennon song, ‘Imagine.” – Thomas Zueger of Gig Harbor, Wash.
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‘Their courage, skill and dedication to reporting from the frontline was incredibly important and ensure that the world could see and read about our fallen troops.’ – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the death of Sunday Mirror reporter Rubert Hamer. A photographer for the paper, Philip Coburn, was seriously injured.
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‘If (Karzai) is willing to make changes in the system, without asking for positions in the cabinet like the others have made, I’d be willing to help the country.’ – Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, who forced a presidential runoff with Hamid Karzai last year
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